Birth of the Hyperloop

A full-length tube between destinations, with a controlled environment inside the tube that allows people or cargo to travel at extremely fast speeds - up to 760 miles per hour or 1,223 km/hr - essentially, that's the Hyperloop.

The Hyperloop uses a linear electric motor to accelerate and decelerate an electromagnetically levitated pod through a low-pressure tube.

The Hyperloop system is designed to be autonomous, quiet, comfortable, emission-free, energy efficient, direct-to-destination and on-demand.

A journey from Edinburgh to London could be completed in 50 minutes, slashing nearly 3.5 hours off the current fastest time.

Or a trip from Los Angeles to San Francisco could take just 35 minutes.

The earliest hyperloop idea came in 1909 from rocketry pioneer physicist Dr. Robert Hutchings Goddard (1882-1945). He proposed a vacuum train similar in concept to the Hyperloop. In 1972, the Rand Corp. conceived a supersonic underground railway called the Vactrain.

It was June 2014 in a garage in Los Angeles' Los Feliz neighborhood where the first elements of a Hyperloop system and initial business model were outlined on a whiteboard by Giegel and Pishevar.

By December 2014, Hyperloop Technologies had established an Innovation Campus in the arts district of downtown Los Angeles to design and test Hyperloop components.

By December 2015, the company also had acquired a 50 acre site in the City of North Las Vegas, Nevada, nicknamed "The DevLoop site." There, they built a one kilometer track for an open air propulsion test.

With 280 workers on the payroll, in May 2017, Hyperloop Technologies held their first full-scale test of the system, the first company in the world to do so. The test combined Hyperloop components, including: vacuum, propulsion, levitation, the sled on which pods travel, tube, structures and control systems.

The Hyperloop One pod on its sled about to enter the tube for its first test, May 2017, North Las Vegas, Nevada (Screengrab from video <https://youtu.be/uLh1alyhc1E> courtesy Virgin Hyperloop One)

Hyperloop Technologies has now rebranded itself as Virgin Hyperloop One after Virgin Group founder Richard Branson made a major investment in the company earlier this month, convinced by the successful test. Branson will join Virgin Hyperloop One’s board of directors when the deal is finalized.

Explaining the technology behind Virgin Hyperloop One, Branson wrote on his blog, “With Virgin Hyperloop One, passengers and cargo will be loaded into a pod, and accelerate gradually via electric propulsion through a low-pressure tube."

"The pod quickly lifts above the track using magnetic levitation and glides at airline speeds for long distances due to ultra-low aerodynamic drag," wrote Branson.

The Virgin Group and Hyperloop One will be entering into a global strategic partnership focused on passenger and mixed-use cargo service.

Giegel and Pishevar wrote on their website, "Our summer of historical full-system tests at our DevLoop site in Nevada proved our technology works. As the only company that has built a fully operational Hyperloop, we’re seeing growing demand from governments and the private sector around the world."

"Even as we build this partnership," wrote Giegel and Pishevar, "the Hyperloop One team will remain in control of all engineering and development, product and system design, business development, and strategy."

Virgin Hyperloop One now has projects underway in Canada, Finland, India, the Netherlands, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates and the United States. Its stated goal is to deliver a fully operational Hyperloop system by 2021.

Musk Goes Underground

Elon Musk's Hyperloop Alpha as described in his original paper would run in tubes built on tall pylons with tunneling called for only to avoid geological obstacles.

But now, Musk's vision for the Hyperloop is no longer on the surface - he wants to put the tubes in tunnels - multiple layers of tunnels bored far underground.

And this is not just a pipe dream, Musk is making it happen.

The Maryland Department of Transportation has just handed Musk's Boring Company conditional approval to bore a hyperloop tunnel from Baltimore to Washington, DC, according to "The Mercury News," a daily published in San Jose, California.

A spokesperson from Maryland Governor Larry Hogan's office told reporters that the tunneling will begin near Fort Meade, Maryland, and that the Boring Company will perform the work under a utility permit.

While Maryland District Department of Transportation officials confirmed they have had talks with Musk's team, they said they are still trying to understand the project.

The exact route of the hyperloop tunnel is not known, nor are the requirements for final approval, whether or not environmental reviews will be required, the schedule, costs or who will fund the project.

The Trump administration told reporters that the White House Office of American Innovation, headed up by President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner, helped the process along and facilitated calls and meetings concerning the project.

Earlier this year, Musk tweeted that he had verbal approval to dig a hyperloop tunnel from Washington, DC, to New York City. He said the one-way trip, including stops in Philadelphia and Baltimore, would take 29 minutes.

Since then, Musk has received approval to dig a two-mile tunnel near the headquarters of his company Space X in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne, California, where the Boring Company's head offices also are located.

Arriving in the Hyperloop tunnel by elevator from street level, a car is poised to be whisked through the low-pressure tube. (Screengrab from video courtesy The Boring Company)

On the Boring website, Musk explains that tunnel will be used to test an electric sled system that could move vehicles at up to 125 mph.

To alleviate traffic, transportation corridors, like the buildings that feed into them, must expand into three dimensions. One option is to “go up” with flying cars. However, flying cars have issues with weather, noise, and generally increase anxiety levels of those below them. The other option is to “go down” and build tunnels.

A video on the Boring Company website shows a car driving onto a Hyperloop sled atop an elevator embedded in the street. The elevator lowers the car into a Hyperloop tube, where it is sent gliding to its destination at hyper-speed.

Musk sees many benefits to building tunnels in layers. First, he says, "There is no practical limit to how many layers of tunnels can be built, so any level of traffic can be addressed."

"Tunnels are weatherproof," he points out. "Tunnel construction and operation are silent and invisible to anyone on the surface; and tunnels don’t divide communities with lanes and barriers."

Why haven't people done this already? Well, they have, but bringing down the cost would get the work done more quickly.

Currently, tunnels are really expensive to dig, with "some projects costing as much as $1 billion per mile," explains Musk. In order to make a Hyperloop tunnel network feasible, tunneling costs must be reduced by a factor of more than 10. Musk says he wants to do this by going electric, automating the tunnel boring machine and increasing its power output.

Musk hasn't revealed whether or not his Hyperloop system will be a partnership with other companies that have already been developing a system or if he will engineer his own.

In his original paper, Musk wrote about the safety and dependability of the Hyperloop, saysing, "The Hyperloop system comprising all infrastructure, mechanical, electrical, and software components will be designed so that it is reliable, durable, and fault tolerant over its service life (100 years), while maintaining safety levels that match or exceed the safety standard of commercial air transportation."

Hyperloop Market Heads for US$6.34 Billion

The Hyperloop technology market, in terms of value, is expected to grow to US$1.35 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach US$6.34 billion by 2026, according to a new analysis by the Dublin-based firm Research and Markets.

These figures amount to a lively compound annual growth rate of 47.20 percent between 2022 and 2026.

Research and Markets has published a report titled the "Hyperloop Technology Market by Components (Capsule, Tube, and Propulsion system), Transportation Type (Passenger and Freight), and Geography (North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and Middle East & Russia) - Global Forecast to 2026."

"The major drivers for the hyperloop technology market are increasing global demand for fastest and low cost transportation for decongestion of cities, less expensive and easier-to-build infrastructure, transportation type with less land area requirement, and technology that is not vulnerable to earthquakes and other natural calamities," the report states.

The key players in the hyperloop technology market profiled in the report are:

Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (US)

Hyperloop One (US)

TransPod, Inc. (Canada)

DGWHyperloop (India)

AECOM (US)

Passenger transportation is expected to lead the Hyperloop technology market between 2022 and 2026, according to this report, "as it plays a vital role in passenger transport at highest speed at a low cost."

Passenger Hyperloop route development is already in progress.

Hyperloop transportation technology has different components such as capsule, tube, propulsion system, and route. Some of the companies having their own engineering facility are manufacturing these components on their own and others are importing from different vendors.

Now Everybody Wants One

The Hyperloop One Global Challenge kicked off in May 2016 with a call for comprehensive proposals to build Hyperloop networks connecting cities and regions around the world.

More than 2,600 teams registered. The Challenge enjoyed broad support from government leaders, said Hyperloop One, and drew bold ideas from companies, engineers, and urban planners.

Ten routes were winners of the Global Challenge.

Canada: Toronto-Montreal

India: Bengaluru-Chennai

India: Mumbai-Chennai

Mexico: Mexico City-Guadalajara

UK: Edinburgh-London

UK: Glasgow-Liverpool

US: Chicago-Columbus-Pittsburgh

US: Miami-Orlando

US: Cheyenne-Denver-Pueblo

US: Dallas-Laredo-Houston

"The Hyperloop One Global Challenge served as a rallying call for ambitious teams worldwide looking to improve how cities, regions and countries get around by via Hyperloop networks. India was a creative hotspot for Challenge entries," wrote Naushad Oomer, senior business analyst on the Hyperloop One website.

Two of India's teams, Hyperloop India and AECOM India, were selected among the 10 winners of the Challenge. "Both these teams feel that it is key to embrace progressive technologies like Hyperloop to help relieve congestion on existing inter-city modes of travel," wrote Oomer.

India is home to one of every six humans on the planet, wrote Oomer. "Currently, the impact of transportation congestion has profound effects on its people and economy. The average commuter spends 91 minutes idling in crowded streets. Traffic delays cost the economy 43,000 crores ($6.6 billion) per year, or a staggering 96,000 crores ($14.7 billion) including fuel costs."

"Overcrowding is also a big issue for India’s giant rail network, which moves more than 23 million passengers daily - nearly the entire population of Australia," he wrote.

The Mumbai - Chennai corridor proposed by Hyperloop India, a consortium of student volunteers from top engineering and business schools such as BITS Pilani, Indian School of Business and IIM Ahmedabad, enhances the value of one of the government’s strategic corridors by creating a new super-metro network of 34 million people, an east-west freight link and an air transport super-hub.

Mumbai to Chennai is currently a multi-hour or even multi-day journey. Hyperloop would shrink that to 60 minutes, creating the largest contiguously connected urban area, of people in the world.

The potential east-west freight link would facilitate a new trade dynamic by reducing the freight transit time between the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal from three days to less than three hours, Oomer wrote.

Hyperloop would connect large economic centers including Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Chennai with smaller regional cities.

"We see integrating the complete value chain (first mile - transit - last mile) of public transit from doorstep to doorstep as crucial to providing the delightful customer experience that makes people switch from other, unsustainable forms of transport," said Sibesh Kar, Hyperloop India team lead.

"We hope winning the Hyperloop One Global Challenge and working alongside Hyperloop One to realize the common future of on-demand, packetized, public transit will not only pave the way for radical transit leapfrogs like the Hyperloop in the future, but also incentivize a shift towards widespread shared mobility, in India and outside," said Kar.

AECOM India leveraged its years of expertise providing planning and engineering services for large, complex infrastructure projects across India to tailor a proposal to connect the cities of Bengaluru and Chennai.

This route would connect Bengaluru, the fourth largest technology cluster in the world, with the port city of Chennai, a locus for automotive and high-tech manufacturing.

This proposed 334-km Hyperloop system would use the existing NH-4 highway right-of-way, and reduce a greater than four-hour car journey to just over 20 minutes.

The projected passenger flow along this corridor is expected to grow to 130 million journeys per year by 2035, according to the Chennai Bangalore Industrial Corridor development plan. By the year 2033, the Bengaluru-Chennai route is expected to carry 65.2 million tonnes of freight in both directions.

"We believe Hyperloop One’s technology aligns with Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi’s vision for a stronger and more prosperous India by connecting far-flung cities Indian cities as if they were metro stops, creating a lasting impact for India," wrote Oomer.

On November 8, 2016 in Dubai, Hyperlink One signed an agreement with the Roads and Transport Authority to explore using Hyperloop One technology to connect Dubai to the greater United Arab Emirates.

The company is already underway in this partnership, which will produce the business model, technical solution and certification process to bring Hyperloop One’s autonomous, on-demand, point-to-point and high speed transport system to the UAE, wrote Bruce Upbin, Hyperloop One's VP Strategic Communications.

He asks us to imagine cutting the time it takes to go from Dubai to Abu Dhabi from 90 minutes to 12 minutes, or Dubai to Riyadh in 48 minutes, or connecting Dubai International Airport and Al Maktoum Airport with a six-minute trip by Hyperloop, forming a single global transport hub.

"The UAE is a place where anything is possible and big visions become reality," wrote Upbin. "We aspire to build the world’s first Hyperloop in the UAE."

Hyperloop technology could be a boon from the movement of freight, and the new system is planned for testing in Dubai.

Hyperloop announced in 2016 that it would pilot a container movement project with DP World to move boxes from the terminal operator’s facility, Jebel Ali Port in Dubai, to an inland container depot. The objective is to free up freight handling capacity by quickly moving boxes away from yard space at the terminal.

An artist's rendering of the Mexloop tubes arching across the land between Mexico City and Guadalajara (Image courtesy FR-EE)

A Mexican consortium led by Fernando Romero, co-designer of Mexico City’s New International Airport and architect of the Soumaya Museum, was named a winner of the Hyperloop One Global Challenge, and is partnering with Hyperloop One to develop one of the world’s first Hyperloop corridors connecting Central Mexico’s major metropolises into a new Megalopolis.

Mexico is building a Hyperloop called the Mexloop to travel between Mexico City, Queretaro, Leon, and Guadalajara. The Mexican studio FR-EE won a contest to design the system, they will work with Hyperloop One on the project.

Right now, driving the 330 miles or 532 km from Mexico City to Guadalajara takes over six hours. The Mexloop could make the same trip in just 45 minutes.

The Mexloop proposal promises to enhance Mexico’s global transport and logistics performance and secure the country as a leader in autonomous mobility and other innovative transportation-related research, building on the ambitious US$600 billion in public works investment under Mexico’s National Infrastructure Program.

FR-EE hopes 68 million people would use the system by 2020. They envision the concept to be adapted for use across the world.

The technical effort is paired with a strategy to build even further on its proposal to catalyze a strategic, high-technology hub in the Bajio region.

This hub would be centered around next-generation transportation industries such as aerospace engineering, autonomous software, and advanced and precision manufacturing to create a new Hyperloop industry, and identifying opportunities to build and develop an Hyperloop knowledge ecosystem through university partnerships, training and certification programs, and professional development.

The Mexloop team says that combined, these would form the basis of a thriving new transport technology industry and supply chain, and a platform for Hyperloop One to test, create, manufacture, develop, and export its revolutionary new technology to the rest of the world.

The use of natural gas fuel is estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by up to 21 percent as compared with diesel and gasoline. But the diesel industry is fighting back.

European Trucking Backs Away from Diesel

The Stralis NP is the first natural gas-powered truck designed for the long haul. (Photo courtesy IVECO)

IVECO, the commercial vehicles brand of CNH Industrial N.V., has signed the largest deal yet for its Stralis NP (Natural Power) vehicles that run on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG).

The agreement, signed October 20 with Jost Group, one of Europe's largest transport and logistics companies, authorizes the delivery of a fleet of 500 Stralis NP trucks running on liquefied natural gas (LNG). Jost is aiming for a 35 percent conversion of its fleet to LNG by 2020.

This order will replace pre-Euro VI diesel-powered vehicles, aged four to five years, in the Belgian firm's fleet of 1,400 trucks and 3,000 trailers. Presently, Jost Group conducts operations with 132 IVECO Stralis vehicles, including two running on compressed natural gas (CNG).

The Stralis NP is the first gas-powered truck designed for the long haul. It is equipped with a 400 hp engine, it has the same payload as an equivalent diesel truck and, with a range of up to 1,500 km, it can travel from Madrid to Frankfurt without refueling.

Demand for LNG is growing rapidly across Europe, with the German Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure (BMVI) having identified LNG as the best solution for long-distance road transport in the short term and for the next 10 to 15 years.

The Stralis NP is intended to be the most sustainable long-distance heavy truck ever made. The first 150 vehicles will begin operating during 2018, with the full fleet to be in service by 2020.

Commenting on the agreement, Jost Group owner Roland Jost said, “This marks a key turning point for our business as we begin a strategic move away from our dependence on diesel and towards green logistics, as requested by our customers, which are demanding a more sustainable transport."

"Our excellent experience operating Stralis Euro 5 EEV diesel vehicles has seen us establish a solid relationship with IVECO, supported by a very strong service network across Belgium," Jost said. “This played a key role in our decision to take the next step on the path to sustainability, choosing the IVECO Stralis NP as the best solution."

"We’re proud to be amongst the early adopters of this new technology: our goal for the next three years is to have 35 percent of our fleet running on LNG. Our Group is also supporting this with an investment in our own LNG refueling infrastructure, with plans to open up to three filling stations within our major operating centres in Belgium,” said Jost.

And Jost is not the only recent purchaser of the Stralis NP. Axis Fleet Management, the UK long-term contract truck hire company, has announced investment of more than £11m in new IVECO heavy trucks with an initial delivery of 150 Stralis tractor units.

The deal marks IVECO’s largest heavy truck order in the UK this year and will see Axis offer the vehicles to both existing and new fleets on full service contract hire.

IVECO was the first manufacturer in the commercial transport sector to recognize the potential of natural gas, in 1991. Since then the brand has developed a range of natural gas-powered trucks, vans and buses. More than 22,000 IVECO gas-powered vehicles have been sold to date.

Pierre Lahutte, IVECO Brand President, explained, “Gas offers the widest range of opportunities to replace diesel in the commercial vehicle market - it's no longer a fuel of tomorrow, it's a fuel of today. This has been firmly demonstrated with one of Europe’s biggest fleets selecting the Stralis NP, running on LNG, to lead their fleet replacement programme."

When running on fossil derived natural gas, the Stralis NP's carbon dioxide emissions are 10 percent lower than an equivalent diesel vehicle, 95 percent lower with the use of biomethane, IVECO says.

The level of particulates is "negligible" and the nitrogen oxide emissions are 50 percent lower compared to diesel over long haul trips.

LNG is also much quieter than diesel, reducing engine noise levels by around 50 percent, easing the stress of deliveries on urban residents.

"Jost Group has clear sustainability goals, and recognises the benefits that our advanced experience in natural power vehicles can bring to its operation," said Lahutte. "We are extremely pleased to be growing our share of their fleet, and introducing the Stralis NP and LNG into their operations.”

Registered in the Netherlands with corporate offices in London, CNH Industrial is one of the world's largest capital goods companies

Jost Group has offices in 10 countries in Europe and North Africa. It offers full, partial and bulk loads, plus the movement of containers, dangerous goods and waste as well as inter-modality in air and sea freight and warehouse logistics.

UK Offers £15 Million Prize to Cut Freight Emissions

The UK government is encouraging companies to compete for up to £15 million of funding to develop technology that will reduce harmful emissions from freight transport.

Jesse Norman, under secretary of state for the Department for Transport, is calling on UK businesses to lead research into low emissions technology for lorries, known elsewhere as trucks.

The projects could develop materials that make vehicles lighter, for instance, or improve the efficiency of engines or batteries.

Minister Norman said, "Lorries cause a third of the UK’s transport [carbon dioxide] CO2 emissions and simple new technologies can have the greatest impact in reducing the harmful pollutants of freight."

"This funding will give UK companies the chance to lead the world in developing important innovations to improve air quality across the country," the minister said.

The first of the projects in the government’s low emission freight and logistics trial, announced earlier this year, are now using new electric and hydrogen dual-fuel vehicles on the road. By mid-2018, more than 300 of these low emission vehicles will be on UK roads.

The new funding follows the £20 million Low Emissions Freight and Logistics Trial, announced earlier this year, which faciliated support for a range of projects aimed at tackling greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from across the freight sector.

Air Liquide Group received the largest amount of that round of funding - £2.57 million – for its project testing biogas in 86 lorries ranging in size from 26 tonnes to 44 tonnes.

Air Liquide is participating in the development of innovative solutions that improve air quality, such as the deployment of hydrogen energy and biomethane for cleaner mobility.

The government is seeking innovative ways of improving air quality across the country and the funding comes just a month after the UK's new Air Quality Plan.

The Air Quality Plan sets out how the UK will reduce roadside nitrogen dioxide concentration and details how the government plans to meet its legal requirements set out in the Air Quality Standard Regulations 2010.

To reduce nitrogen dioxide pollution, the government promises to establish a £255 million implementation fund; establish a Clean Air Fund; and assign £100 million for retrofitting and new low emission buses.

The government also plans to end the sale of all new conventional petrol and diesel cars and vans by 2040.

The new competition for £15 million has been developed with Innovate UK, the operating name of the Technology Strategy Board, the UK's innovation agency. It is a non-departmental public body operating at arm's length from the government and reporting to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy.

Innovate UK intends to help the government achieve its ambition to be a global leader in electric vehicle technology and to see all new vehicles emission free by 2040.

“We welcome this significant further investment in zero emission research and development funding, in particular its focus on freight and commercial vehicles as this is a major opportunity for UK companies to drive forward innovations," said Simon Edmonds, director manufacturing and materials at Innovate UK.

Since 2010, the Office for Low Emission Vehicles and Innovate UK have invested more than £300 million in research and development, to improve technologies for ultra low emission vehicles. This funding has unlocked a further £200 million of private sector investment.

The number of ULEVs on British roads is at record levels, with more than 118,000 registered to date and more than 11,000 registered between April and June 2017.

California Ports Test Toyota's Project Portal

The future of heavy-duty trucking just hit the streets of Los Angeles in the form of Toyota Motor North America’s Project Portal, a hydrogen fuel cell system designed for heavy-duty Class 8 trucks.

For decades, Class 8 trucks have been powered by diesel, and, just recently, liquefied natural gas (LNG) and dimethyl ether (DME), but diesel still powers more than 95 percent of all Class 8 trucks.

As part of a study in conjunction with the Port of Los Angeles, the California Air Resources Board and the California Energy Commission, Toyota built its Project Portal concept truck with two hydrogen fuel cell stacks from the Mirai fuel cell passenger car, mated to a 12 KwH battery pack.

The electric motor produces 670 hp and 1,325 lb-ft of torque. The Project Portal truck has a gross vehicle weight rating of 80,000 pounds, with an estimated range of 200 miles.

Since April 2017 when on-road development began, the Project Portal truck has completed more than 4,000 successful development miles, pulling drayage rated cargo weight and emitting nothing but water vapor.

“Toyota has led the way in expanding the understanding and adoption of fuel cell technology,” said TMNA Executive Vice President Bob Carter. “From the introduction of the Mirai passenger vehicle to the creation of the heavy-duty fuel cell system in Project Portal, Toyota continues to demonstrate the versatility and scalability of the zero-emission fuel cell powertrain.”

With testing and development miles completed, Project Portal is ready to start work.

Initial feasibility study routes, moving goods from select Port of Los Angeles and Long Beach terminals to surrounding rail yards and warehouses for distribution, began October 23. The test truck’s daily trips will total around 200 miles. Longer haul routes will be introduced later.

The initial feasibility study operations will be managed by the TMNA Project Portal team, in collaboration with Toyota’s Service Parts Accessories Operations group and its drayage provider, Southern Counties Express.

Heavy duty vehicles make up a significant percentage of the annual emissions output at the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, and the Project Portal feasibility study may reduce emissions.

DANNAR Unveils Electric Disaster Response Truck

The new DANNAR Mobile Power Station® can navigate flood waters and supply off-grid power when disasters knock out power supplies. (Photo courtesy DD DANNAR, LLC)

An American company has come up with the first in a new class of electric work machines. The new DANNAR Mobile Power Station® (MPS) is a driverless heavy-duty truck designed for disaster response, infrastructure maintenance and supplemental off-grid power.

This disaster response vehicle combines days of emergency power with the ability to clear destroyed streets and travel through flood waters three feet (one metre) deep.

The MPS can provide clean energy for single-day or multiple-day work requirements. Its two-way charger and inverter allows for emergency export power from the battery system for large buildings or even entire neighborhoods.

Located in Muncie, Indiana, and San Clemente, California, DD DANNAR, LLC, is an OEM manufacturer of this purpose-built, off-road electric vehicle and energy platform for government fleets.

With diverse add-on configurations, the MPS is the first of its kind as a multi-purpose solution for first response and public works.

The MPS comes standard with 66 kWh BMW i3 lithium-ion battery packs, but can be configured with up to 198 kWh of on-board electricity.

The high-voltage batteries used in the BMW i3 feature eight modules, each containing 12 cells and were developed in-house by the BMW Group for DANNAR. The packs are currently delivered to DANNAR’s Indiana assembly facility from BMW’s plant in Dingolfing, Germany.

Besides its partnership with BMW for batteries, DANNAR works with other suppliers - Parker Hannifin for the mobile hydraulic system, UQM Technologies for the traction motor, and Cummins for an optional tier 4 generator.

“The MPS is designed with off-the-shelf, top of the line components, making it the first zero emission off-road configuration designed to carry this much energy and utility,” said DANNAR founder and CEO Gary Dannar. “These partnerships are vital components to our success moving forward. It is an exciting time to be part of the electrification of vehicles and equipment.”

An optional 60 kW Tier 4 generator provides 600 kWh of continuous, off-grid electricity and battery recharging. Combined with a 50-gallon fuel tank, the MPS can recharge itself for days before refueling.

With a towing capacity of 100,000 pounds and optional work arms with a 7,000 pound load capacity, the MPS outperforms traditional equipment.

The onboard hydraulic power unit provides a universal quick plate for any Caterpillar® or Bobcat® attachments, as well as hydraulic tool circuits for chain saws, breakers or impact wrenches.

It can be outfitted with multiple seasonal configurations, making it more cost-effective to operate, while providing more work value, than traditional diesel equipment.

The DANNAR Mobile Power Station utilizes a heavy-duty e-drive system made by UQM, a Colorado developer and manufacturer of high-efficiency electric motors, generators, power electronic controllers and fuel cell compressors for the commercial truck, bus, automotive and marine markets.

“UQM has been with us every step of the way and is the ideal electric propulsion partner for this type of mission critical heavy-duty electric off road zero-emission vehicle,” said Dannar. “UQM’s leading power density and e-drive technology pairs perfectly with our other industry leading partners, and has helped create this extraordinary vehicle."

UQM chief executive Joseph Mitchell said, “The DANNAR Mobile Power Station is an innovative and important vehicle, and we see this technology leading the movement towards off-road utility applications and mobile power for many critical infrastructure needs."

The DANNAR MPS was on display at the Orlando Public Works Expo August 27-30, 2017.

VW Focuses on Electric Trucks, Buses

Volkswagen Group plans to roll out battery-powered commercial vehicles targeted at urban areas as growing public concerns about air quality increase demand.

The Volkswagen Truck & Bus division will invest 1.4 billion euros (US$1.7 billion) in new technology including electric drivetrains, autonomous systems and cloud-based software, Andreas Renschler, head of the unit, told Bloomberg News on October 11.

VW Group's U.S. affiliate Navistar International will adopt some of the systems, while the company's MAN and Scania nameplates will both deliver full-electric buses next year to European cities, adding to biodiesel, hybrid systems and natural gas alternatives.

"We believe in a wide range of alternative powertrains and fuels, depending on local availability, social and local demand and customer requirements," Renschler said at a press event. "Therefore it is crucial that policy makers adopt a technology-neutral approach" in any regulations”.

Electric trucks for local deliveries will probably exceed a five percent market share by 2025, Renschler said. That compares to a forecast of about 25 percent for battery-powered cars.

In heavy-duty trucks for long-haul transportation, today's battery technology still has a big hurdle to overcome - meeting the necessary energy requirements would disproportionately reduce load capacity, Renschler explained in a statement.

Alternatives exist in combustion engines powered by gas or biodiesel. Running engines on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) is a solution that holds great future potential for long-haul transportation, Renschler said. "The future is looking rosy for this technology in long-haul transportation thanks to LNG’s high energy density."

The VW brand Scania presented the first LNG truck in EURO VI back in 2014. An LNG campaign was launched in September 2017 in cooperation with Volkswagen’s Group Logistics.

Initiatives are also under way to find a different way to electrify heavy-duty trucks to make sure that their range and load capacity are suitable for long-haul traffic.

The buzzword for this area of development is “e-road,” which focuses on the use of overhead power lines, as in the rail sector.

Trucks powered by overhead lines can run with zero emissions, and any batteries can be charged depending on how many emission-free kilometers lie ahead. A test route for electric Scania trucks already exists in Sweden. Test routes have also been announced in Germany.

Drive systems of the future will not be uniform, since their aim is to achieve an intelligent transition from diesel engines to alternative drive systems and fuels, said Renschler.

“Volkswagen Truck & Bus has announced its aim of becoming number one in the field of alternative drive systems,” Renschler said. “The company already has a broadly diversified portfolio, which offers the best possible foundation for this endeavor.”

Tesla Keeps Semi Under Wraps

California-based automaker Tesla had originally planned to unveil its new all-electric truck, the Tesla Semi, at the end of September.

Then, Tesla CEO Elon Musk pushed the prototype reveal back to October 26, and now it has been put off again - to November 16.

Musk announced plans to manufacture a semi-truck in a tweet in April 2017. Now we know that the truck may be able to drive itself and automatically move in platoons with other big rigs.

The global financial services firm Morgan Stanley in September called the unveiling of the Tesla Semi "the biggest catalyst in trucking in decades" and they expect that the electric truck could be 70 percent cheaper to operate than a diesel-powered truck.

Morgan Stanley analysts Ravi Shankar and Adam Jonas have predicted that Tesla’s new truck will likely force other manufacturers to reveal their own plans for electric commercial trucks.

Shankar and Jonas expect the Tesla Semi to finally go on sale in 2020, but the company will take orders starting when the prototype is revealed.

They predict that Tesla will deliver 25,000 units per year and generate revenue of $0.25 per mile from leasing batteries. Based on these calculations, the analysts expect Tesla's trucks to generate sales of $11.7 billion by 2028.

Don't Count Diesel Out Yet

This UD2600 diesel-powered truck is made by the Japanese company UD Trucks Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Volvo Group. UD Trucks has a diesel product line that includes trucks from medium-duty Class 5 through heavy-duty Class 8. Boston, Massachusetts (Photo by Jason Lawrence)

Eight U.S. states in the Northeast region are set to receive US$306 million as part of the emissions settlement from the Volkswagen Environmental Mitigation Trust.

This settlement resolves allegations that Volkswagen violated the U.S. Clean Air Act by the sale of 590,000 model year 2009 to 2016 diesel motor vehicles equipped with defeat devices, in the form of computer software designed to cheat on federal emissions tests.

The excess pollutants at issue here are oxides of nitrogen (NOx), particularly nitrogen dioxide, which inflames the lining of the lungs, reducing immunity to lung infections.

NOx pollution contributes to the formation of smog and soot, exposure to which is linked to asthma and other respiratory and cardiovascular health effects, as well as premature death.

Children, older adults, people who are active outdoors, and people with heart or lung disease are particularly at risk.

This settlement money is earmarked for projects that immediately reduce NOx emissions.

The Diesel Technology Forum, an industry advocacy group, is urging the trucking industry not to abandon diesel fuel in its search for NOx reductions, but to upgrade to the new generation of diesel technology.

Diesel is the technology of choice for commercial trucking, marine and rail applications, and the benefits of the new generation of technology offer the Northeast states the fastest and most proven way to cleaner air and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Yet fewer than one-third of diesel trucks in the Northeast use the cleanest, newest diesel technology, said the Forum in a statement.

Applying VW settlement funds to replace or update the largest and oldest trucks, industrial marine and locomotive engines in the Northeast with the newest clean diesel technology would yield immediate NOx benefits at the lowest cost per ton, compared to electrification in the opinion of the DTF.

Forum members represent the three key elements of the modern clean-diesel system: advanced engines, vehicles and equipment, cleaner diesel fuel and emissions-control systems.

"Regulators across the Northeast must recognize the current and future role of diesel technology in the global goods movement sector, and the substantial, immediate clean air and climate benefits that come from the accelerated adoption of the latest clean diesel technology," said Ezra Finkin, director of policy and external relations at the Diesel Technology Forum, speaking at the Northeast Diesel Collaborative Partners Meeting, September 25-26 in Newark, New Jersey.

"East Coast communities near manufacturing hubs, shipping/trucking throughways and ports will benefit the most from accelerating the introduction of newer clean diesel technology in emission reduction," Finkin said.

Trucks registered in these eight states: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont, make up 10 percent of the 5.6 million-vehicle U.S. commercial fleet. Nearly 10 percent of the nation's diesel engines are manufactured in those states.

Because of its unique combination of power, performance, efficiency, reliability, durability and availability, diesel power is projected to remain the dominant technology for global goods movement on land and sea by some forecasters.

The Fuels Institute, using analysis from Navigant Research, predicts that by 2025 diesel will still be the predominant engine type powering commercial vehicles. Battery electric, fuel cell and natural gas powertrains will only make up about three percent of the commercial vehicle fleet.

The newest generation of clean diesel technology achieves near-zero levels of NOx emissions and particulate matter emissions, while also maintaining an efficiency and performance advantage over other fuels.

The newest generation of clean diesel trucks have NOx emissions that are 99 percent lower than previous generations, along with 98 percent fewer emissions of particulate matter. Beginning in 2011, all heavy-duty diesel trucks sold in the United States had to meet NOx emissions of no more than 0.20 grams per brake horse-power hour (g/BHP-hr), in addition to particulate emissions levels of no more than 0.01 g/BHP-hr, as established in 2007.

"Diesel is the technology of choice for commercial trucking, marine and rail applications, and the benefits of the new generation of technology offer the Northeast states the fastest and most proven way to cleaner air and reduced greenhouse gas emissions," said Allen Schaeffer, executive director of the Forum.

The U.S. Department of Transportation states that, using the latest emissions model generated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, one ton of NOx emissions may be eliminated by investing, on average, US$20,000 in clean diesel technology as compared with $1 million in alternative fuel infrastructure.